Interview with Lin Xin: A Local Gazetteer of a Small Northwestern City
Keywords:
Lin Xin; Independent Documentary; Local Gazetteer; Urban Memory; Visual ArchiveAbstract
This interview with documentary filmmaker Lin Xin examines a personal approach to documentary practice that records local history and ordinary lives through long-term visual engagement. Having lived in Tongchuan, Shaanxi, Lin Xin began making documentaries in 2003 and has devoted his work to documenting the social transformation, industrial memory, family history, and spiritual life of this northwestern Chinese city. Through works such as Chenlu, Sanlidong, Classmates, Gas, Preacher, Chen Jiayong, Riverbed, and Silent Landscape, he has developed a form of personal visual gazetteer.
In the interview, Lin argues that documentary filmmaking should not rely on dramatic fabrication, but should maintain humility and patience toward reality. Rather than controlling life as a director, the filmmaker should “submit to the logic of life,” allowing reality to unfold through long-term observation, close engagement, and genuine relationships with subjects.
The interview further discusses Lin’s concept of a “Tongchuan gazetteer.” He argues that documentary images, written records, and archival materials together constitute a contemporary history of a city. Unlike traditional local histories that often focus on major figures and events, personal documentary practice preserves the experiences of ordinary people who are frequently absent from official historical narratives.
The interview also examines the creative processes behind works including Sanlidong, Classmates, Gas, Riverbed, and Silent Landscape. Lin emphasizes that the value of documentary images does not lie in technical perfection, but in whether the visual form corresponds to lived reality. Imperfect, accidental, and unstable images may sometimes preserve the texture of reality more faithfully.
Ultimately, Lin regards documentary filmmaking as a way of living. He believes that documentary practice transformed him from an artist seeking self-expression into a humble recorder of everyday life, creating visual archives that may preserve the experiences of ordinary people for future generations.
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